Homer Jay Simpson, formerly known as Max Power,[2] is the father of the Simpson family. He's an overweight, lazy, and ignorant individual, but is strongly devoted to his wife and children. His behavior's often stupid, absurd, selfish, dangerous, clumsy, idiotic, and insensitive. Despite this and his below average intelligence, he showed moments of great intellect, and can be a caring parent and husband at times.

Biography

History

1950s

Homer Jay Simpson was born as the third child of Abraham Simpson, and the first (and only) child of Mona Simpson on May 12, 1951. He was raised on the Simpson farm by his parents until they were forced to move out due to Homer spooking the cows by jumping out of a bale of hay and scaring them into giving sour milk. At some point during his childhood, Abe seemed to feed beer to Homer, but he quit drinking beer until he was older upon Barney's suggestion after he caused a multi-car pileup in his playschool car at school.

1960s

In 1960, Homer experimented to see if he can push fifteen crayons into his nose, which resulted in one being lodged into his brain and being responsible for his current below-average intelligence. In the early 60s, when Homer was between nine and twelve years of age, Mona went into hiding following a run-in with the law. However, before she started protesting, she took Homer and her husband to the Woodstock Music Festival, where Homer ended up briefly adopting the hippie lifestyle (and Abe Simpson attempted to send him off to the Vietnam War as punishment for wanting to be a hippie). In 1966, Homer, along with Lenny, Carl, and Moe, went over to a deep gorge for a nice swim, but the water was drained. When investigating why the lake was reduced to a muddy pit, he stumbled upon a decomposing corpse inside the pipe, greatly traumatizing him and leading to his occasional overeating and fear of corpses.

1970s

Homer attended Springfield High School and fell in love with Marge Bouvier in 1974.[11] After high school, Homer and Marge bought an apartment at Springfield Place. During this time, Marge received a letter accepting her into college. To pay for her tuition, Abe gave him a job at Simpson Lazer Tag. As well as this, along with Lou, Lenny, and Carl, Homer was part of a barbershop quartet. When Marge became infatuated with her professor, Homer changed the band's name to Sadgasm, and they invented grunge music. Marge realized she really loves Homer, and she went back to him.[12]

1980s

In 1979, Marge became pregnant with Bart. (After discovering this, Homer tore out half his hair.) At this time, Homer was working at Sir Putts-A-Lot, turning the crank spinning the windmill. The two married in Shotgun Pete's 24 Hour Wedding Chapel, a small wedding chapel across the state line. They spent their wedding reception alone at a truck stop, before ending up at the Bouvier House, where they lived at the time. After failing to get a job at the newly built Nuclear Power Plant, Homer left Marge to find a job where he can support his family. He went to work at a taco restaurant called the Gulp 'n' Blow, until Marge found him and convinced him to return home with her. As a result, Homer confronted Mr. Burns and secured a job at the Plant.[13] Two years after Bart was born, Marge became pregnant with Lisa in 1981 (after discovering this, Homer tore out all but three strands of his hair), shortly before the couple brought their first house.[14] Homer's second leap to stardom was his success as the lead singer and songwriter for the barbershop quartet, the Be-Sharps, even winning a Grammy Award. (He later complains a Grammy isn't worth winning.) During his time with the group, Homer was frequently absent from home, which put stress on his marriage. After the group broke up due to creative differences, Homer went back to Springfield to continue his old life.[15] Some time in the late 1980s, Homer drew up a budget so he can work at his dream job, a pin monkey at Barney's Bowlarama. The budget included buying regular toilet paper and only one of the kids can go to college. Unfortunately for Homer, Marge became pregnant with Maggie in 1988, shortly after he started his new job, and, not being able to support his family, he went back to the Nuclear Plant.[16] Since then Homer started many jobs, including being a professional astronaut for NASA, but ended up back where he began at the Nuclear Plant. He nearly caused the destruction of Springfield a couple of times, after a nuclear meltdown at the plant and polluting Lake Springfield with his petpig's (and his own) waste.[17]

Jobs

When first joining the Power Plant, Homer had a nameless job handling plutonium. He was fired by Barry Mackleberry, his supervisor, for creating a deadly gas leak. He was later re-hired as safety inspector for Sector 7-G, after complaining about the safety of the plant itself. Ironically, the accidents occurring at the plant double every year since Homer was made safety inspector.

Homer rarely attends his job, yet hardly gets fired, and always has his job waiting for him when he wants to return. He impulsively quits occasionally to pursue other carers, although he always ends up losing or quitting these jobs. On one occasion, Homer misinterpreted a threat about losing his job as a hint he can take the next day off.

Appearance

His appearance is an overweight balding man. He has a tan stubble that can regrow itself at a very quick rate if he ever shaves. Despite his overweight status, and hate for exercise, he, on occasion, shows surprising physical prowess and agility for a man of his stature, like when training for Whacking Day, he hit several pop-up Snakes with kicks and even back flipping. His baldness is contributed by several factors. Upon finding out Marge was pregnant, he tore out a substantial amount of his hair. Another contribution he is working at the nuclear plant so long, the exposure to radioactivity caused most of his hair to fall out. In one episode, he learned if he repented for all of his sins and became Catholic, he can go to Heaven when he dies. During his confession, he states he masturbated eight billion times, he doesn't plan to stop, and he doesn't regret it. Excessive masturbation can lead to hair loss as well. He wears a white polo shirt, blue pants, and grey shoes.

Personality

Homer strangling Bart.

An x-ray of Homer's true brain.

Homer's personality's frequent stupidity, laziness, and explosive anger; one may say it's the "Average Joe". He also suffers from a short attention span complementing his intense but short-lived passion for hobbies, enterprises and various causes. Homer's prone to emotional outbursts; he gets very envious of his neighbors, the Flanders family, is easily enraged at his son, Bart, and strangles him in an exaggerated manner. His trademark phrase to strangling Bart is, "Why you little...!" and on one occasion, "Why you little bastard!".[18] He also spanks Bart sometimes and, in one case, Lisa. One time, he was too busy to spank them, so he told them to go to their rooms and spank themselves. He shows no compunction about this, and does not attempt to hide his actions from people outside the family, even showing disregard for his son's well being in other ways, like leaving Bart alone at a port,[19] or allowing Bart to go to court for skateboarding naked on his dare when all he will have to do is attend a 1 hour parenting class signifying not only his disregard for Bart but his extreme laziness.[17] While Homer repeatedly upsets people and caused all sorts of mayhem in Springfield, these events are usually caused by either his explosive temper or lack of foresight. Except expressing annoyance at Ned Flanders, Homer's actions are usually unintentional. Most of his explosive anger's targeted on Bart, because of something stupid or bad he said or did. Despite their disadvantages, these common outbursts saved Homer from dying of a pent-up rage-induced heart attack.[20]

While Homer's stupid antics often upset his family, he also performes acts revealing him to be a surprisingly loving father and husband, like selling his cherished ride on the Duff Blimp and using the money to enter Lisa in a beauty pageant so she can feel better about herself;[4] giving up his chance at wealth to allow Maggie to keep a cherished teddy bear;[21] spearheading an attempt to dig Bart out after he fell down a well, even though he hates doing physical labor;[22] and arranging a surprise second wedding with Marge to make up for their lousy first ceremony, even going so far as to hire one of The Doobie Brothers as part of the wedding band and getting a divorce from Marge, essentially making their second wedding a "real" one.[23]

Homer tends to derive amusement from the misfortune of others. He's a chronic petty thief and borderline kleptomaniac, stealing everything from TV trays to power tools and air conditioners, even an entire room of the Flanders House from Ned Flanders. He also stole golf balls from the local driving range, office supplies (including computers) from work, and beer mugs from Moe's Tavern.

Homer holding a donut.

Homer has a vacuous mind, but he's still able to retain a great amount of knowledge about very specific subjects. He often shows short bursts of astonishing insight, memory, creativity and fluency with many languages. Homer's also extremely confident; no matter how little skill or knowledge he has about anything he tries to do, he has no doubt he'll be successful. However, his brief periods of intelligence are overshadowed by much longer and more consistent periods of ignorance, forgetfulness and stupidity. Homer has a low IQ due to many factors: his hereditary "Simpson Gene", his alcohol problem, exposure to radioactive waste, repetitive cranial trauma, and the crayon lodged in the frontal lobe of his brain. He also implied he will have been at least a bit smarter, if not by a substantial amount, if his father tried to give him encouragement rather than beat him down.[24] The crayon in his brain's possibly the largest causal factor in his stupidity. Homer's intelligence was said to jump up fifty points when he had the crayon removed, bringing him to an IQ of 105, slightly above an average person (though he showed far above average intelligence), but he went back to his old self when he had it reinserted, presumably lowering his IQ back down to its original 55.[25] This IQ score's, however, likely a joke or oversight on the producers' part, because someone with an IQ of 55 will be unable to look after themselves and will be classified as severely mentally handicapped. Also, from the level of intelligence he showed, it's much more likely his IQ was boasted to 135-155. Despite his handicap, Homer does have a degree of long term, calculated planning of what may happen, like when, shortly before taking his "forget-me-shot" from Moe Syzslak, requested for their anniversary party to have a Moon Jump due to realizing exactly what will happen afterwards.[26]

Homer at times debates against his brain. Occasionally, a specific body part like his face, stomach or liver's also shown debating with his brain. In one notable scene Homer's mind actually leaves his body out of boredom, causing him to collapse. Homer's also inclined to retreat into fantasy, like daydreaming of Germany as "the land of chocolate".[27][28]

Homer's attitudes toward women, romance, and sex are occasionally shown. While Homer's marriage with Marge is occasionally strained, it seems generally happy. Despite this, Homer's often tempted with other women, and usually shows no qualms with gawking at (and drooling over) attractive women. Homer almost had an affair with Mindy Simmons,[29] but ended up not wanting to. He made the occasional remark denoting his attraction to other women (including his neighbor's wife), even in front of Marge on occasion, but always shows his devotion to Marge in the end.

Religious beliefs

Despite attending church every Sunday, Homer's not a committed Christian, and it's likely he only attends church because he knows Marge will be hurt and shocked if he didn't. He doesn't seem to practice Christian morals and frequently sleeps in church, much to the annoyance of Reverend Lovejoy. He often mispronounces the name of Christ, calling him "Jebus".

Homer actually met God face to face several times and even got permission from him in a dream to skip church.[30][31]

Alter egos

Homer became a superhero named Pieman when The Rich Texan made Lisa cry. He chucks pies in the faces of evildoers or people who deserve to be pied, uses the basement as a Pie Cave and his car as the Piemobile. Bart later acted as his sidekick named Cupcake Kid.[32] He also attempted to don a graffiti alias as "El Homo", meant to be a Mexican take on his name, but erased it when he realized the alias was Spanish for homosexual.[33]

Skills

Homer's skills seem to vary greatly. Sometimes Homer can find it difficult to run to smallest distance before passing out from exhaustion, to exceeding the prowess of gold medal Olympians. At other times, he can have trouble understanding the simplest of concepts to being able to build a functional robot with a working A.I.

One skill remaining somewhat constant throughout the series is his musical talent. Homer can play the guitar amazingly well and is an accomplished singer and songwriter. He was part of several bands, all extremely popular. He won a Grammy for barbershop, numerous golden records for his grunge band, a music style he also invented, and was able to help Lisa win a music contest using songs he wrote for her.

Like Bart, Homer also displays the ability to pick up languages fairly quickly. When he and Bart were imprisoned in Japan for a seemingly short amount of time, he was able to speak the language fluently by the time he left.

Health

Homer's 40, overweight and so unhealthy, his life expectancy's only 42.

Homer, while varying in physical ability from episode to episode, is consistently portrayed as a binge drinking, over eating, accident prone dare devil who puts absolutely no thought into what his actions'll cost him, all of which made it impossible to get any form of insurance concerning his health.

Homer's in the hospital in at least one episode every season, and had several life saving operations not including the one for his triple heart bypass and subsequent installation of his pacemaker he needed after his arteries were clogged with cholesterol.

Years of working in a sub standard nuclear facility left his blood irradiated enough to show up on an x-ray, as well as having rendered him sterile.

Homer loves food. He can almost always be seen eating far more than any one man can possibly eat alone. His favorites are foods he knows are bad for him, and will blatantly refuse healthy food like oatmeal and fruit in favor of fatty meals. He was once willing to die upon eating a poisoned éclair despite knowing it will kill him, only to throw it away in horror when Lisa claimed it was low fat.[35]

Homer also seems to have trouble with his hearing because he attended too many rock concerts.[36] His lack of hearing may be the reason he didn't pay attention at any words anyone said. Both Bart and Homer have problem with concentration.[37]

Hair Loss

There are multiple theories how Homer lost his hair. One theory suggests Homer ripped out some of his hair when he realized Marge was pregnant with Bart, then more when he found out she was pregnant with Lisa, and all but the last few hairs when he found out she was pregnant with Maggie.

Another theory's Homer's hair was once squirted with some kind of acid, thus causing permanent hair loss.[citation needed]

Relationships

Romantic

Despite being married to Marge, throughout the entire show, Homer had a number of romantic encounters.

Marge Simpson

Homer is the husband of Marge Simpson. They met when they were younger without learning who each other was before meeting again properly in high school. They had three weddings.[18][23][38] The two have a very strong marriage which survived cheating, amnesia and many arguments. They have been in love since high school.[11]

Mindy Simmons

Mindy Simmons was an attractive employee at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant who has nearly everything in common with Homer. They attended a convention together and nearly had an affair.[29] After Homer turned her down, he later says she "hit the bottle pretty hard and got fired."

Lurleen Lumpkin

Lurleen Lumpkin is a waitress Homer helped in launching a successful singing career. She attempted to seduce him with no success.[39] She's been married multiple times to men who all look like Homer.[39]

Amber

Amber was Homer's Vegas wife Homer accidentally married in Las Vegas.[40] They managed to get her drunk and made her believe she married Abe which made her run back to Vegas.[41]

Julia

When Homer becomes a famous opera singer, he attracts the attention of a horde of fans including a stalker by the name of Julia. She confesses to Homer she is his to do with as he wants, becoming his personal assistant and attempting to seduce him at every turn. When he proclaims his heart belongs to Marge, she attempts to kill him with no success.[42]

Edna

Friendships

Barney Gumble

Barney Gumble is one of Homer's best friends. They were both born in 1951 making Homer the same age as Barney. They have been best friends since high school. Homer was the one who convinced him to become an alcoholic.[44]

Lenny and Carl

Lenny and Carl are Homer's co-workers at the Nuclear Power Plant, and they knew Homer back in their childhood.[45][46]

Non-canon

The contents of this article or section are considered to be non-canon and therefore may not have actually happened or existed.

Future

In 8 years from now, Homer and Marge's relationship finally ended, after Homer blew the family savings on an underwater house. She started dating Krusty the Clown, and eventually Homer fought him to win her back. Homer was beaten, but Marge still decided to go back to him.[47]

The Simpsons: Tapped Out

Behind the Laughter

Creation

Matt Groening first conceived the Simpson family in the lobby of James L. Brooks' office. He had been called in to pitch a series of animated shorts, and intended to present his Life in Hell series. When he realized animating Life in Hell would require him to rescind publication rights for his life's work, Groening decided to go in another direction. He hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, with Homer being named after his father. Homer made his debut with the rest of the Simpsons clan on April 19, 1987 in Tracey Ullman short "Good Night". Homer's middle initial "J", revealed to stand for "Jay",[48] was a "tribute" to Bullwinkle J. Moose from Rocky and Bullwinkle, a show Matt Groening loved as a child.[49]

According to Matt Groening, the whole family was designed so they would be recognizable in silhouette.[50][51]

Voice

Homer's voice sounds different on the shorts than the later half-hour show. Dan Castellaneta's earliest portrayal began as a loose impression of Walter Matthau, but developed into a more robust and humorous voice during the second and third season of the half-hour show, allowing Homer to convey a wider range of emotions.[52] Castellaneta changed the voice, as he could not sustain his Matthau impression for the 9-10 hour long recording sessions and had to find something easier.[53] During an interview with the cast of the show on Inside the Actors Studio, Castellaneta stated Homer's voice was based in part on his own father who often spoke with an exuberant tone.

Foreign dubs

Homer's name is rarely translated, though exceptions occur. In the Arabic version Homer becomes Omar, and it was heavily modified, with alcohol and pork being removed. The Latin American version translates Homer to Homero.

Reception

On May 30, 2003, Homer was made an honorary citizen of Winnipeg, Canada, in recognition of Matt Groening's father Homer Groening, believed to be from the Manitoba capital.[54]

Homer placed second on TV Guide's 2002 Top 50 Greatest Cartoon Characters, behind Bugs Bunny.[55] In 2005, Homer was listed fifth on Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters, one of only four cartoon characters on that list.[56] British TV viewers voted him as the greatest TV character of all time.[57] In 2007, Entertainment Weekly placed Homer ninth on their list of the "50 Greatest TV icons".[58]

The Simpsons has been recommended for use in the teaching of sociology to modern-day college students. The journal Teaching Sociology appraised it as "particularly effective for illustrating sociological themes and encouraging critical thinking among today's undergraduates".[59] The non-academic book The Simpsons and Philosophy, the D'oh! of Homer includes a chapter analyzing Homer's character from the perspective of Aristotelian virtue ethics.

Homer was ranked the second greatest cartoon character by TV Guide, behind Bugs Bunny, and was voted the greatest television character of all time by Channel 4 viewers. For voicing Homer, Castellaneta won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and a special-achievement Annie Award. In 2000, Homer and his family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Homer Simpson syndrome

A five-year study of more than 2,000 middle-aged people in France found a possible link between weight and brain function, dubbed the "Homer Simpson syndrome".[60] Results from a word memory test showed people with a BMI of 20 (considered to be a healthy level) remembered an average of nine out of 16 words. Meanwhile, people with a BMI of 30 (inside the obese range) remembered an average of just seven out of 16 words.[60]

Merchandising

A golden figurine of Homer from Burger King in 2007.

Homer's inclusion in many Simpsons publications, toys, and other merchandise is evidence of his enduring popularity. He played central roles in the Simpsons Comics series. The Homer Book, written about Homer's personality and attributes, has been published and is commercially available. Numerous other items such as bottle openers, alarm clocks and other merchandise are widely available for purchase.

In one episode he was the only character in the show to say bulls**t but the "s**t" part was censored by a honk sound.

It's implied in "Homer's Triple Bypass" Homer's bloodstream has a continuous regulation of radioactivity, as Dr. Hibbert was explaining to Marge Simpson they injected Homer with a Radioactive Dye to see his circulatory system from an X-ray until he learns the nurse hadn't even injected the dye yet (resulting in Hibbert saying "good lord" in a shocked manner).

Homer owns the Denver Broncos, despite wanting to own the Dallas Cowboys.

It is believed Homer is diabetic as mentioned in "That '90s Show". However if this was true, Homer would most likely be dead because he has never been seen taking insulin and the amount of food Homer eats would just ensure he would already be dead by the point the episode "That '90s Show" was shown.

In "Fear of Flying" it is shown his favorite song (at the time) was "It's Raining Men".

Homer, in fact, died twice. As shown in "Homer's Triple Bypass", when he died of a heart attack, but was revived when Mr. Burns mentioned a ham. And again in "Million Dollar Maybe", when he was trying to calm himself down after stressing about being rich and not being able to tell Marge, but was revived when he realized he was dead and made a desperate attempt to return to his body. He dies countless times in the Treehouse of Horror segments, but they are non-canon.

According to "The Blunder Years", his constant eating and fear of corpses was a direct result of his trauma from finding Waylon Smithers, Sr.'s corpse.

Homer is 5'11" tall and his shoe size is 11 1/2. He also weighs 240 pounds.[61]

He is one of three characters in the series to break a leg and have an episode plot revolve around it.[62] (The other two are Bart[63] and Marge.[64])